Skip To Content
JEWISH. INDEPENDENT. NONPROFIT.
The Schmooze

Tata Werneck’s ‘Bully’ Slip Irks Brazilian Jews

The popular Brazilian actress Tata Werneck apologized for comments she made about Jews on a national talk show.

Werneck said in a statement about her remarks on “Love & Sex” that she was “deeply troubled” by the reaction she has stirred in the Jewish community, Yahoo! Entertainment reported.

The president of the Jewish Confederation of Brazil, Claudio Lottenberg, sent a letter Monday to the general director of the Globo television network, Carlos Henrique Schroeder, saying the episode would cause bad feelings against Jews in Brazil. The Jewish Federation of Rio de Janeiro has threatened to sue Werneck.

Asked on the show what she would do if a gay friend was being bullied at school, Werneck said she would divert the bully’s attention to any Jewish classmate.

In her apology, the 30-year-old actress said in a statement, “I am deeply troubled by having generated this kind of reaction from the community,” Yahoo! Entertainment reported.

“My intention is never to offend or harm. We were in a program about bullying and my role there was to give the politically incorrect answers.”

Werneck said some of her best friends are Jewish, according to Yahoo!.

A message from our CEO & publisher Rachel Fishman Feddersen

I hope you appreciated this article. Before you go, I’d like to ask you to please support the Forward’s award-winning, nonprofit journalism during this critical time.

We’ve set a goal to raise $260,000 by December 31. That’s an ambitious goal, but one that will give us the resources we need to invest in the high quality news, opinion, analysis and cultural coverage that isn’t available anywhere else.

If you feel inspired to make an impact, now is the time to give something back. Join us as a member at your most generous level.

—  Rachel Fishman Feddersen, Publisher and CEO

With your support, we’ll be ready for whatever 2025 brings.

Republish This Story

Please read before republishing

We’re happy to make this story available to republish for free, unless it originated with JTA, Haaretz or another publication (as indicated on the article) and as long as you follow our guidelines. You must credit the Forward, retain our pixel and preserve our canonical link in Google search.  See our full guidelines for more information, and this guide for detail about canonical URLs.

To republish, copy the HTML by clicking on the yellow button to the right; it includes our tracking pixel, all paragraph styles and hyperlinks, the author byline and credit to the Forward. It does not include images; to avoid copyright violations, you must add them manually, following our guidelines. Please email us at editorial@forward.com, subject line “republish,” with any questions or to let us know what stories you’re picking up.

We don't support Internet Explorer

Please use Chrome, Safari, Firefox, or Edge to view this site.

Exit mobile version